themis1

Since there are more people here now ... this was the week that was.

Mostly, chasing Dyno about the leak in the kitchen, which has progressed as far the actual location of the leak being identified, but no further. Dyno were going to keep me in touch with what was going on (are the Insurers prepared to continue along this route, or should we be finding our own plumber/builder)? Our concern is the drip runs down an already very rotted joist (thanks, slow leak) and the longer we leave it the more damage it's doing ...

Other than that, the washing, various writing-related tasks (Website Wednesday, etc), emptied bins, cleared an entire folder of old paperwork - but most of it has to be shredded (I'm looking at you, 1985 Notting Hill Carnival operational order), a couple of writing-related webinars, numerous emails, and only 731 new words. The file clearance/shredding isn't something I can do fast, and is part of the 'I need to sort out the tip that used to be a tidy office'. Oh, and I went to the gym on Wednesday.

Now I need to find somewhere to get rid of the dead PC ...

Weekly(ish) update:  We started the week on Sunday with a visit to the annual Christmas fair at Nature in Art - picked up a few small presents and had a walk around the photography exhibition.  NiA is a local treasure - a lovely old building dedicated to displaying art.  There is an exhibition space frequently used for textile exhibitions, and a full programme of lessons for adults and children.   Sculpture is displayed in the gardens, and there are some lovely old trees.  Sadly one of the pines (it may well be, by the size, a Redwood) appears to have died :-(

The week whizzed past.  Four out of five days had Sean, our painter, working in the new workshop area in the barn - this is going to be a sewing area.  I measured it this morning and it's 14' x 23'.  It's going to be a lovely space we can hold small workshops in, should we want to.  We also picked more apples, we have now got most of the ones we can reach but as usual there are still lots up there.  We're hoping the reduction that's going to be done to the tree at the end of this week will solve some of that problem, but when you have a tree that's several hundred years old, it's going to be BIG.  Note to self: must remember to tell the guys to preserve our mistletoe.  We rather like the fact we have mistletoe in our apple tree :-)  Nanowrimo started this week, and so did my scifi romance; despite several very busy days I have so far managed to keep to target.  Day two was a little annoying, as I hit my word count and posted only to realise it was gone midnight so it counted as day three, not day two - spoiled my perfect record of posting every day!  Never mind :-)

Penny had an embroiderers' guild trustees meeting in Hoddesdon on Thursday so left early and returned late - a long, long drive for her.  Friday it was my turn to do the shopping with Lynn.

Saturday Penny and I headed down to Oxford for Queer Company 2, an event for writers of m/m (mostly) erotic fiction.  I don't write in this genre (although Penny won a stiffy some years ago for a Quantum Leap story) but there are always writing tips to be picked up whatever your genre.  The event is run by an old friend of mine and it's always nice to offer her support.  This year's event was enlived by an afternoon talk from Farah Mendlesohn, who I have corresponded with on LJ and Facebook for some years but hadn't previously met.  It was lovely to finally meet her.

I don't know what's going on in Oxford - well, I do, but I hadn't realised before we got there: they seem to have completely demolished the main shopping mall, and are rebuilding it, resulting in street closures and bus re-routings that nearly had Penny and I stranded on the wrong side of town before I realised we would have to walk to Debenhams to get the bus back to Peartree park and ride.  Also, the area around the castle, much touted when it was opened as THE place to be of an evening, seemed strangely deserted and rather run down.  Some of the lights weren't working, and there didn't seem to be half the restaurants and bars there used to be - despite the rest of Oxford being as busy as ever on a Saturday evening.

Sunday - I may as well cover it since I'm not writing this until Monday! - I headed up to the Blue Ginger gallery, where Hannah Willow was running a silver workshop.  I went to a workshop with her earlier in the year but didn't manage to finish my piece, so she kindly invited me up for free to sit and do the beading.  Piece now finished, hooray!   I have now been to Blue GInger so frequently that the proprieter, 
 

Update LJ: Sun - Nature in Art, a bit queasy; Mon - unexpected painter, picking apples; Tues - start Nano, usual GC, home alone, NAYJ paperwork; Wed - no painter; Thurs - Penny away; Fri - Shopping; Sat -

 

 I did promise to update more often, and have failed - part of the reason for that (I'm good at excuses) is that I spent all of November doing Nanowri, and actually managed to finish a close-on-60,000 novel.  A whole novel.  Including the ending!  (I'm pretty good at getting within a chapter of finishing and ... not).  So on the whole I was pretty chuffed with myself.  I like the world I came up with, and the characters worked well, and there are possibilities for sequels too, all of which pleased me enormously.  I'm not convinced it's very exciting, mind you!  The current plan is to do an edit, probably in February, and then think about maybe recruiting some betas.  Maybe.  If I still like it when I re-read it (as much as one ever likes one's own writing).  At any rate, I enjoyed the process and the looming deadline I did actually find helpful, so I'll probably do it again next year (maybe I'll write the first sequel!).

Builder has just arrived on the doorstep, so I'll get back to you <g>

The people whose garden backs on to the side of mine have been pruning the beautiful row of conifers at the end of their garden each year, and every year I've muttered in annoyance at them doing it.

Today I came home and found all the conifers were gone.  Completely gone.

All the privacy my garden had is now gone.  I am going to have to buy net curtains for my bedroom window, which never needed them before, and the garden looks - naked, and dull.

I think this weekend I will be at the garden centre investing in the fastest-growing leylandii they can find me.

I'm really upset!

I was somewhat surprised, whilst wondering whether or not to get up this morning, to hear what sounded suspiciously like a steam train whistle. We just heard it again, and I checked, and yes, a steam train *did* pass through Bicester North station today. Which must have surprised the regular travellers no end ...

Also, it demonstrates an amazing ability to notice something out of the ordinary, since we don't normally notice train whistles - except for the one a few minutes after the steam train went through, which caused Phoebesmum to say, "THAT'S what trains are supposed to sound like!"

Let's see ...

Upset stomach - check
Headache - check
Feverish - check
Aching - check

*sigh* Looks like I got whatever Phoebesmum had last weekend. I guess I won't be getting as much done on the thesis this weekend as I'd planned ...

GC went to battle last night with our internet provider, having established that the problem was definitely BEFORE the house, not after. We are still running on the old routr, since the new one doesn't work as well with the intermittent signal as the old one does. Having said which, the signal has been much better all day - I wonder whether they have boosted our feed until such time as British Telecom admit where they've screwed up the wiring? Anyway, GC is much better at arguing with people on the phone than we are, and they can't blind him with science, either, so he did a jolly good couple of hours work arguing both with BT and with Force9. Fingers crossed the good signal continues ...

There will be one, I'm sure of it. The stacks of paper are reducing - although I must confess much of what I'm looking at is what my professor would call 'background'. However, how can you talk about the foreground if you don't understand the background fully?! At any rate, the piles of paper are going down, and I'm not adding anything new any more (there was a point where every new article I read led to me collecting another 5 or 6 ...). So, well behind schedule, but still plugging away!

Because once you start collecting, you just can't stop ...